Pakistan slams US for killing Taliban leader

November 3, 2013

ISLAMABAD - The Pakistani government Saturday accused the U.S. of sabotaging peace talks with domestic Taliban fighters by killing their leader in a drone strike, as the militants began the process of choosing a successor.

The rise in tension, even though the U.S. took out Pakistan's No. 1 enemy, shows just how complicated the relationship between the professed allies can be. The two repeatedly have clashed over issues such as drone strikes and Pakistan's alleged support for militants fighting U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan.

The Pakistani Taliban leader slain Friday, Hakimullah Mehsud, was a ruthless figure known for a deadly attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan and a bloody campaign that killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and security personnel.

The Pakistani army has launched numerous operations in the country's northwest in a failed attempt to subdue the group, which aims to topple Pakistan's democratic system and impose a harsh version of Islamic law. It also seeks an end to the country's unpopular alliance with the U.S.

Pakistan's government, which took office in June, has pushed peace talks with the Taliban as the best way to end the conflict, although many people are skeptical a deal is possible.

The drone strike that killed Mehsud in the North Waziristan tribal area came a day before the government was to send a three-member delegation of clerics to the region with a formal invitation to start peace talks, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said. It never ended up going.

Khan called the drone attack "murder" to the peace effort, but hoped the process could continue. He said he warned the U.S. ambassador previously that American drone strikes should not be carried out while Pakistan was trying to hold peace talks and no Taliban leader should be targeted. The government later summoned the U.S. ambassador to complain.

When asked whether he thought the U.S. was trying to deliberately scuttle the peace process, the minister responded: "Absolutely."

"The efforts have been ambushed," the minister said.

He did not say what he felt the U.S. stood to gain but questioned: "Why do they want us to be insecure?"

Another prominent political leader, Imran Khan, whose party controls the government in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, threatened to block trucks carrying supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan over the strike. He said he would push the provincial assembly to adopt a resolution to block the supplies and would do the same nationally.

"Dialogue has been broken with this drone attack," Imran Khan said.

The interior minister said as soon as Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returns from abroad, a national security meeting will be convened to discuss U.S.-Pakistan relations and cooperation. He would not specifically address the threatened supply lines closure.

Azam Tariq, the Pakistani Taliban spokesman in the South Waziristan tribal area, provided the first official confirmation of Mehsud's death Saturday.